Canon City News

Fremont County Tourism Council: Lodging numbers continue to soar

Lodging properties' revenue increased by $1.3 million in 2017

Rafters go through the Five Points rapids on the Arkansas River in 2013. (Daily Record File Photo)

Lodging properties in Fremont County took in a revenue increase of $1.3 million last year, continuing the upward trend in the county's lodging tax collections.

Most of the visitors who stayed at local hotels, motels and campgrounds also visited the Royal Gorge Bridge, went rafting, rode the Royal Gorge Route Railroad, ate in restaurants and purchased gas, helping to boost the local economy.

"We had our best year ever," said Steve Kaverman, the chair of the Fremont County Tourism Council, during his annual report to the Fremont County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday. "This is the highest lodging tax collection the county has ever had since the lodging tax went into effect."

Fremont County's 2-percent Lodging Tax is reinvested in marketing and promoting efforts to entice more people to the area and put more "heads in beds."

Kaverman said the lodging tax collected in 2017 was up 12.8 percent during the previous year. The 2016 collections equated to more than $10 million in lodging revenue and nearly $11.5 million in 2017.

Lodgint tax collections in recent years include $229,329 in 2017; $203,771 in 2016; $190,298 in 2015; $139,646 in 2014; $136,872 in 2013; and $127,028 in 2012.

Kaverman said not all of the people who spend the night in the area are tourists, some are here to visit friends or family, some are here on business, and others are passing through and happen to stop for the night.

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Whatever the reason, it's a benefit to other businesses.

"Pretty much everybody who stays in the local hotels is spending money on something else, whether it's gas or meals or in the case of our tourists, trips to the bridge, trips on the train, rafting and you name it," Kaverman said. "It really does have a pretty amazing economic impact."

According to research conducted for the Colorado Tourism Office by Dean Runyon Associates, travel spending in Fremont County in 2016 was $65.6 million, which was up $1.4 million from the previous year.

Also in 2016, earnings came in at $16.6 million, up $0.3 million from 2015, but tourism jobs equated to about 836 in 2016, a decrease from 855 in 2015. In 2016, about $2.5 million in local taxes was collected, in addition to $1.9 in state taxes.

"Local taxes was an impressive number," Kaverman said. "I like to think of this in terms of that's money our local taxpayers would be responsible for were it not for the impact of tourism on this community."

Kaverman said 2017 figures, which will be released in June, are expected to show continuing improvement.

Also in 2017, the FCTC also received for the fifth consecutive year a $25,000 grant from the Colorado Tourism Office, and the City of Cañon City contributed $25,000 in funding.

In an effort to generate more lodging tax revenue to invest in destination marketing efforts, last year the FCTC chartered a sub-committee to study the formation of a Tourism Marketing District under provisions of the Colorado Revised Statutes. The city proposed an alternative path using Home Rule Authority that was seen as more expedient.

The City of Cañon City formed the Royal Gorge Regional Tourism Council and approved an ordinance placing a question on the November ballot, which would have created a 5 percent City Lodging Tax to broaden the marketing effort of the Royal Gorge Region. The issue lost by 180 votes with 51.94 percent against and 48.06 in favor of the increase.

The RGRTC is expected to continue its effort this year to create a Tourism Marketing District, with the primary goal to ensure the county's interests are represented in the eventual formation of a single, unified destination marketing organization serving the Royal Gorge Region.

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